Friday, September 30, 2011

Ouch and urrrggghhhhh. Please forgive any errors or mistakes in this write up. It's 12:08pm local time as I start to write this and I got up 10 minutes ago with a hangover from hell. Morning after is not bad if you don't see the morning. I think last night was a very good night and here's what I remember. I'm sure S810 JR will correct me as he's rather good at spotting my "Flamingo up's"*.

So the arranged roam was for a p3n1s fleet of Thorax's. Yes, we went out in a T1 cruiser gang for sh1ts and giggles. First port of call was to be Enaluri as that's where the PvP Caldari Militia are based (as opposed to the mission running I don't PvP Caldari Militia, more on that later).

We undock from Nisuwa and I get the black-screen-of-nothingness so have to re-log. This bug is really starting to get on my nerves. I'll undock one time and I'll be entering space an a couple of seconds, others I'll be staring at a black screen for 2 minutes before giving in and restarting the client, which when I log back in will instantly enter space???

We take the long route hoping to catch a few squids. We make a few jumps and we're reported in Caldari Militia as a 62 man fleet. We've got 23. And yes, shock horror, we do have spies in the Caldari Militia just as the Caldari Miltia has spies in the Gallente Militia. I convo the guy and put him straight :o)

We get to bottom station in Enaluri and I sober up some, as my overview starts to flash orange. There is a squid BC fleet at the undock.

Now all I really recall is that there was no coordinated fight from the squids. They have a carrier out but are not engaging all together. We're "Ghetto Alpha'ing" them in T1 cruisers one at a time. Every so often one agresses and we kill him, but generally they weren't agressing properly on us. Every so often one we're shooting would dock, undock and we'd kill him as he undocked. I admit I wasn't in the best condition to remember what was happening, but it was mighty strange.

They killed a few of our cruisers, but we killed a lot more including Command Ship, HAC, BC's and bombers.

We're still getting intel in squid militia and one of the guys in Enaluri is having a go in their militia channel. He posted "WHERE IS EVERYONE?". So I post in local something about missioning. He convo's me and asks if I was saying he was a missioner. I explained no, he was clearly a PvP'r but the others in his militia channel were obviously missioning. Another cool guy and left on a friendly "lol may the best win ;)"

I also noticed Ganndor in local. He's the squid I had a great 1v1 with a week ago which was the subject of this blog - http://sandciderandspaceships.blogspot.com/2011/09/small-ones-can-be-best.html. I linked him the blog post. I woke up this morning afternoon to a nice Eve mail from him saying it was indeed a very good fight. We do have some nice guys in this game, which is easy to forget with all the scamming, rage and hate we sometimes see in game.

Anyway, what hasn't been killed has docked up except for the Archon and we remove his shields before he docks. That was a good fight and we move on.

We grab a Brutix in Nennemalia and I get top damage in my AutoCannon Thorax of Doom - http://sotf.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=10729618. No idea how that could happen as I'm assuming I was controlling the mouse with a foot and mashing the keyboard with my forehead at this point.

I also get his pod. http://sotf.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=10729607. There has been a lot of discussion lately if the CarbonUI has lead to a small increase in lag when your ship gets destroyed which in turn has lead to an increase in podding. I know I'm losing more pods these days in low-sec than I did before Incarna. And if I'm so "tired and emotional" that I cannot remember the fight, yet I got the pod kill, the pilot was either fail, or there is an issue with ship-to-pod lag.

I must have burnt home at this point as that's where my kills for the night end. For a change I woke up in my home station. Usually when I log out like that, next time I log in I wonder why I am in null sec 30 jumps from home!

Generally I've had a bad week with work. If you look at my kills you'll see I've not done much PvP and my kills are down. Also for anyone who reads this blog you'll have noticed the distinct lack of battle reports like this. Anyway, job situation is looking better after some news yesterday and hence my celebration drink or 20. What a great way to break a barren spell!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

The majority of PvP players in Eve hate me. When I appear on field they stop shooting the primary and target me. They blame me for ruining their fun. They blame me for ruining their PvP. My fleet mates love me, my enemies hate me..... for I am a Falcon pilot.

Falcons, you either love 'em or you hate 'em..... depending usually if they are in your fleet or against it! I don't fly Falcons all the time, but I have been flying them a lot more recently. I tend to swap favorite ships every so often. Once one ship becomes my particular flavour-of-the-month I tend to fly that ship a lot more than others. A while ago it was Nano-Drakes, then I went through a fairly long Arty-Cane spell. Now I'm back in the Falcon.

In case you aren't up on the most hated ship in Eve or never come across Caldari ships, Falcons are a Force Recon Ship (T2 Cruiser) with a big buff to Electronic Counter Measure (ECM) strength. These are a chance-based mid-slot module that prevent the target ship from locking any targets. With Recon V (30% bonus to jam strength per level!) and the right racial jammers, a Falcon pilot can easily take 3 battlecruisers out of the fight. In small gang warfare a Falcon is on a par with logistics as a force multiplier. A 6v6 fight can be turned into a 5v3 with a good Falcon pilot keeping three of the opposing side locked out. Add in that they can fit the Covert Ops Cloaking Device so you'll rarely know you are up against one until it decloaks and starts jamming, they are a nasty ship. They are also ideally suited to being away from the frontlines, and the enemies firepower. Optimal range for the jams is over 70km when you have the right skills and fit. With falloff you can still get lucky jams at well over 100km out. However, Falcons do have drawbacks.

The main drawback with Falcons is their tank, or should I say lack of it. If you can hit me, I'm in trouble. Falcons will usually sit away from the fight, aligned out so if they start to be engaged they can warp off quickly. Fitting a shield tank reduces the number of jammers you can fit. Fitting an armour tank reduces the number of distortion amplifiers you can fit, making your jams weaker with shorter range, whilst also slowing your ship down and reducing your GTFOability.

Therefore heavy missile Drakes are a major threat, in fact I have a Drake specifically fit as an anti-Falcon ship*. Artillery Hurricanes are also a ship to be wary of if they have long range ammo in their cargo holds. Obviously any sniper ship that can put DPS out around the 70km mark is a hazard.

The Falcon pilot also needs to have good spacial awareness. Get tackled and you need to be quick to stop your jammers cycling and target whatever has you pointed. My best one was when I got tackled by 4 ships and still managed to GTFO. They are not an easy ship to fly if you don't want to lose too many!

Another drawback is that jams are chance based. It is possible to miss cycles of jams when really you should be catching them everytime. Therefore if the fight plan is relying on the Falcon to jam certain ships and you don't, things can deteriorate rapidly.

Finally, it can be hard to get a fight if they know you have a Falcon. Especially when you have even numbers and a smallish gangs. Most people would avoid the fight knowing that the enemy had a Falcon.

There are other ECM ships, so why is the Falcon the one singled out for such hate? The other ships that receive a bonus to ECM are...

The Griffin - Bog-standard Frigate
The Kitsune - The Electronic Attack Ship.
The Rook - More fire power than the Falcon, no covert ops cloak

The Scorpion - The Battleship.

The Widow - Black-Ops Battleship.

These ships are all ECM boats. Their primary purpose is to jam the target and stop it being able to lock and therefore take it out of the battle. But the Falcon is the one that people really hate. Why?

I have a couple of theories. Firstly, could it be due to the ability to fit the covert-ops cloaking device? The enemy that you cannot see is often the most scary. Think along the lines of horror flicks. The invisible killer stalking you, he's there, he's going to get you, but you cannot see him.

Or is it that perhaps the others have significantly greater drawbacks than the Falcon. The Griffin and Kitsune are uber squishy, haven't cloaks and a relatively low number of jams making it easy to kill. The Rook has no cloak so you cans see it coming a mile off. The big lumbering Scorpion is a juicy target, it's easy for a very fast tackle to grab a warp in on it. It's also got a very bad tank for a battleship and goes down quickly under fire. The Widow Black-Ops is an expensive kill and everyone likes to kill a Black-Ops! Then again the Widow is also a very rare sight. How often do you see one deployed? May be if they were more common they'd be just as hated as the Falcon. Although getting Black-Ops to level V would be a pain so it's jams are unlikely to be as effective.

So yes, the Falcon is very nasty ship in the right circumstances and with the right pilot. Yes, it can turn a fight into a gank on its own just by turning up. However, it has it's weaknesses and is easy to kill if you do it right. They are squishy and their weaponry is chance based. There's always the possibility that all jams will fail leaving you exposed and vulnerable.

Just remember, hate the game, not the player!

*And no, you cannot have my anti-Falcon Drake fit!

P.S. Thanks to S810 jr for pointing out errors in previously holey version o.0

Sunday, September 25, 2011

I was having a little roam in my Hawk the other day when I came across a squid (Caldari Militia member) in a Dramiel. He was sat on a gate at zero as I jumped in. I let my session timer tick a bit before burning at him. My thought being, if he get's range, and therefore not a fight I want to be in, I can jump out before agressing. If he comes in at short range then I'll give it a go.

I wasn't holding out much hope. It had been a futile roam so far with every squid I'd seen either running, or in a cloaky ship. Anyway I thought I'd give it a go and see what happens.

He indeed agresses me at close range so I agress back. He's hitting me hard but my shield booster is doing it's job. I'm bleeding a bit of armour so pop a blue pill. Arse! Side-effect! A penalty to missile explosion velocity is not what you want when fighting a speedy Dram. Anyway I'm still getting the boost to my shield and he's getting into armour, although I'm not hitting him as hard as I was before popping that combat booster. At this point the outcome of the fight is too close to call. I'm lower armour than him but the shield booster is giving me that extra bit of shield each cycle that he's got to get through, his armour is going down at a constant rate.

We're both into low armour when he burns away from me. I try to follow, but he's much faster than me so I won't be able to keep up. Also his drones and AC's can still hit me at range. I won't be able to do the same as my rockets won't hit him once he's out of range. He gets out of my rocket range and my DPS hits 0. However, being out of range of my rockets also means that he is also out of point range. I am still taking damage, I cannot hit him now at all, but I'm no longer pointed, so I warp off in low armour leaving him also in low armour.

We have a quick chat in local, I said that he "won" as if I'd stayed he have killed me, as a few other guys arrive. Nice guy and agreed it was a very good fight. I'm in no condition to fight anymore and there is no station in system to repair so I head home.

Not really an epic fight, and not a great story to tell, but it was bloody good fun! When your hands are shaking after a fight, win or lose, it's a good fight! Two frigate hulls dueling one-on-one. Each with their own strengths and weaknesses and requiring a bit more thought to go into the fight and tactics rather than the normal MMOG style fight of kicking each other in the shins until one falls over.

You don't need two blobs with ECM and logistics and a hotdrop to make an epic fight. Sometimes all you need is two pilots, the willingness to risk your ship and a bit of space.

I am assuming many corporation's are coming out of the usually quiet summer period and now looking at consolidating their numbers as Eve becomes (we hope) more active. Whilst I don't personally know Lucifer's Hammer, I'll give them a shout anyway as Rixx is such an active member of the Eve Tweetfleet/blogsphere community. Heritic Army I do know, and they are a fantastic bunch of guys and can thoroughly recommend them for some low-sec piracy PvP action in the Amamake area.....

However if you are yearning for some Militia related PvP in an active, social and rather drunk corporation, then look no further, Shadows of the Federation is for you.

I could write a wonderful piece about our corporation, but I think Eelis Kiy's recruitment video sort of sums us (SoTF) up rather nicely:-

So who are we? Shadows of the Federation are a PvP corporation within the Gallente Militia. We are NBSI and have a fair few -10.0 in the corp. However, we will not force you to the darkside and have many members who are not pirates.

The Corporation was formed as a facion war corp in 2008. In 2009 it was one of the founding members of the Villore Accords MDP, seen by many as the turning point where the Caldari dominance of the war zone was halted and the Gallente fight-back started. I personally joined at that time too when my corporation "Revelation Space" (-RS-) merged into SoTF.

After wtfpwning the Caldari things got a bit stale in the Gallente-Caldari warzone towards the end of last year. So during late 2010 we took a break from Faction War and sampled NPC 0.0, Sov Holding 0.0, low-sec alliance and even low-sec piracy. In September 2011 we returned to faction war as we'd found nothing that fit our play style better... and, to be perfectly honest, 0.0 is really ****ing boring for PvP!!!

We fight seriously, but that's where our seriousness ends. The corp has always been more about the people in it rather than killboard stats. If you have a quick flick though this blog you'll find stories like this which show the sort of corp we are.

The long term plan of the corp is the same as the medium term and the short term:-

"To have a corporation where people can log on when they want, shoot what they want, and log off when they want with a fun, often drunk and sociable crowd"

That might sound like some to be a non-serious bunch of drunkard gamers who are only playing Eve for a laugh. In some respects we are, but check our Kill Board. We're not to be taken lightly!

When in Militia, logistics won't rep you as they'll take a faction standing hit for assisting outlaws (FIX THIS CCP!!!!!)

You are also a target to everyone it seems sometimes. Even NRDS corps will shoot you and everyone likes to kill a pirate! If you jump into a camp as a neutral, you have a chance that the camp will not be interested in you. As a -10.0 they will try to kill you.

People can also shoot you without penalties. No gate-gun aggro, no GCC, but I cannot do the same to you. It's like having the entire galaxy having a one-sided perma-war dec on you.

However there are good points to being -10, the main one is that people shoot at you. Which doesn't sound like a good point, but when they shoot you, you can legally shoot back.... not that the legal aspects concern me much any more.

But the thing is, it is with what people shoot you with when you're -10.0. People seem to engage in fights they cannot win just because you are a pirate. I've had this a couple of times lately but the best example was only yesterday......

I was having a little solo roam in a Thrasher. In Heyd I jumped slap bang into the middle of a gate camp..... thankfully it was fellow Gallente Militia members. As an extra bonus, especially for me, it was Spiritus Draconious, so I was fairly confident that those guys would have their overviews set up correctly and wouldn't kerpslat me. It's always a danger being -10 in a militia that a "friendly" will have their overview set up badly and will engage because they see a pirate on overview, not a friendly militia member.

There was also a neutral crusader with them, but as I assumed he was with them, I ignored him. I selected a gate and warped off. As I hoped, SD didn't open fire due to crap overview settings and the Crusader didn't do anything agressive.

Anyway, I'm in warp and on my way to the out-gate. As I landed on the gate, so does that neutral Crusader who was sat with the SD camp. He lands and starts yellow boxing me. Seriously?!?!?!? You want to take a Thrasher on.... in a 'ceptor? Suddenly he goes red box. I have an expression on my face along the lines of o.0. Seriously, I'm taking damage whilst wondering WTF he's doing!

Lets look at this logically.....

Firstly off, I'm in a Thrasher. They are a ship with a fairly limited role. They exist to kill frigate sized ships, and to be fair, not a lot else unless you got a lot of them together. He does know he's in a 'ceptor doesn't he....?

Well to be fair to him, he's at point-blank range. Artillery cannons would have difficulty hitting a fast moving target at only 3km away. If I had artillery fitted that is, did he look at my ship.....?

...because, since Incarna, it's become very, very easy to identify the guns on a Thrasher. Look at it. Has it got rotating gattling style guns on it or long barreled rifle/cannon looking guns? Rotating gattling style guns? Well then, that's an autocannon fit Thrasher you have there.

AC Thrashers are usually fit (unless it's a lolfit) for close-range combat. And most close-combat ships usually fit a web and a scram.

Therefore if you see a Thrasher with rotating gattling style guns you can probably have a good guess that he's web and scram fit too.

A Thrasher, fit with AC's and web and scram will rape any frigate hull that gets close.

3km IS close.

Web! Scrammed! Slaughtered! Not a close fight, even with me hesitating and wondering WTF for a few seconds at the start of the fight before I agressed back.

So why did he engage me solo with no back up in a ship that was no match for mine? Well, I consider it's due to a medical condition I like to call.......

OMFG-ITS-A-PIRATE-KILL-IT-itus.

This common condition affects the logic parts of the brain of many Eve Online players. When the sufferer sees a -10 pirate on his overview he engages without thinking. People with this condition have the misguided belief that... well........ to be honest I don't know what they are thinking. There are a few options I suppose:-

1. They watch too much Hollywood and in their eye's the good guys/underdog always win.2. For some inexplicable reason, they think the gate guns will suddenly active and back them up.3. They are taking the chance that in the next 20 seconds (or less) in which the fight will last, someone else will arrive and back them up against the ebil piwat.4. There is no number four. I have no other ****ing idea why they Leeroy into us like this!

To be honest he didn't survive 10 seconds, never mind 20. An Interceptor at point blank range against an autocannon fit Thrasher isn't meant to survive. It's like a sloth going up behind a lion and flicking its love-spuds with a wet towel.

I posted in local "gf mad person" and got a "lol" back. Still I wish now I'd convo'd him and just asked "WHY??????????". Unfortunately I didn't get the loot. A squid Thrasher jumped in on top of me as he popped. Now a Thrasher v Thrasher fight would have been fun, but I was low shield and had to warp off.

If I was a nice person I'd say - People, please listen to me! Just because I'm -10 doesn't mean the laws of the game are any different. Attacking me when I vastly out power you is not going to end well for you. If you wouldn't take the same engagement under a war-dec scenario, why undertake it just because I'm -10.

But I'm not a nice person (in-game) so I'll just say - Please keep doing what you're doing! G'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrr*

Saturday, September 17, 2011

"You spin me right round baby, right round, when you go down, when you go down, down"

Following on from the tongue-in-cheek fiction post about us returning to Nisuwa, here is what SoTF has been getting up to in the last twelve months....

My Corporation, Shadows of the Federation has been struggling lately. The collapse of the ShadowWolves.NET alliance (I blame the crappy name personally), the quiet summer period, becoming -10 piwats and some people taking an Eve break due to Incarna related bugs, loses due to bugs and related emo-rage has left us low on numbers and low on motivation. We've done a lot over that last twelve months and our several changes of direction has also hurt our numbers. I guess it is true that you can't please all the people, all the time.

However, we WILL bounce back, no doubt about that. Our first few days back in our "new" direction has seen our average online numbers double and we've heard from old friends who are dropping roles in their current corporations and looking to return to the fold!

It's been an amazing year in terms of what we've achieved as a corp. It was nearly 12 months ago when we where part of the Gallente Militia that we started to get itchy feet.....

We were bored. And it was mostly our own fault. We were flying around Black Rise in 30 man T3 fleets with Logistics and ECM support. The Caldari went running whenever they saw us. And to be honest you cannot blame them. Only Wolfsbridade and the local pirates such as Snuffbox and Rooks and Kings gave us any challenge. It wasn't fun any more. We had some amazing FC's. On one roam our 30 man HAC gang engaged a pirate BS blob and they dropped 4 carriers on us. We screwed them over and killed 3 of the 4 carriers with minimal losses. Yes we got a bit big-headed. We started to talk about moving on up and taking the corp to the "next level". SoTF had started out as a Faction War corp and that's pretty much all we'd done for two years. We started to see the grass was greener on the other side of the fence.

At that time the alliance IRed were down in Syndicate and having "trouble" with a couple of the other local alliances. I had a real-life mate in IRed at that time and we said we'd give them a hand. It sounded ideal. The "low-sec dwelling Faction War noobs" going to scary 0.0 to take on the l33t alliances that lived there. We'd been to 0.0 plenty before in roams, but never "lived" there and certainly never gone head-to-head with a 0.0 alliance in a war-dec! The forums were buzzing with suggestions and tactics plus reminders to people we shouldn't be complacent and we'd need to "up our game" down there. Unfortunately, we didn't. Another myth busted that faction war corps are PvP noobs and cannot stand against the might of 0.0 alliances. We kicked ass. I was clearing out "surrender emails" every time I logged in from my mailbox. We were having 20 v 20 BC battles resulting in one loss and 20 kills. A couple of us would camp their station undock when it was quiet, and although we were heavily outnumbered in local and they still wouldn't undock. Soon the battles died off and the camping got longer and quieter. We got bored again and IRed no longer had need of our services as their enemies were now a shadow of there formerselves and they also knew we'd be back if IRed asked.

At this time we had an offer to join R.A.G.E. alliance as part of the Northern Coalition. Sounded interesting, our own system, we could build a station! Reports of mass battles verses the Ruskies. It all sounded good. So we tried it. We patrolled NC space and got blue balled. We ran Sanctums (before CCP nerfed them) and gained ISK. We were using jumpbridge networks. We built our own outpost, we helped others build their outposts. Few pics below of our outpost we built. The "egg" is what the station looks like under construction when you build it before DT. after DT it spawns into a proper station....

We were in our capital ships more than ever.... we were doing the 0.0 thang, but the real PvP our corp craved was sadly lacking! We are a PvP corp and at that time were spending more time doing PvE stuff! The PvP we did experience was a lag fest that required the piloting skill of a 3-week old cheese sandwich. The typical "PvP" night went thus...

Form up at station with hundreds of pilots.

Move to PoS.

Titan logs in and we all get in position.

I say "we all", I actually mean 99.9% do but one tard keeps his MWD running and doesn't know about the keep at range button.

One volley.... come on guns..... cycle FFS! What's going on with my guns?

Ah back in sync. Who's next?

Oooooooo that's a LOT of flashy yellow boxes.

Even though I'm not getting shot may be I should broadcast for.........

Kersplat! BOOM!

Ooooo so that's what the alpha from 500 BS does to your battleship!

OK time to pod home from good old O2O.

That was it. You didn't need skill or abilities. Sit, wait, jump, fire, DIIAF (Die Instantly In a Fire), pod home. You could take part in these battles using one finger.

We did get big kills, we killed titans, we killed super carriers, we killed dreads and carriers. We even "killed" an outpost (and I personally got the final blow and thus captured the station in the name of SoTF!). CCP were even talking about our battles (mostly due to the war on lag and what great data they were getting from O2O)! But it was not for us, the medium sized gang warfare (sub 50-man)was not there and neither was there sufficient solo PvP. So we left R.A.G.E. on good terms and sold our station at a massive loss..... which we didn't feel so bad about three weeks later as the Russians stomped through NC space and captured it.

So back in faction war for a short time and things were the same. Wolfsbrigade, the Caldari Militia Corp, were also bored so it was suggested we form an alliance and war-dec other alliances. It went well to start with but as we moved to a PvP "hotspot" we kicked ass and the enemy moved out. It was Syndicate all over again. So after a couple of weeks all we were left with was a quiet area of space and minimal PvP as everyone else had moved away from us. So we decided to move close to the infamous PvP system of Amamake. Home of low-sec PvP. It was also at this time we removed the security status cap of -1.99 or higher. From being an anti-pirate faction war corp, we were now independents heading full speed to -10. G'aaaarrrrrrrrrrrrr!

It was over there when things with WBR deteriorated. Whilst we all got on well with each other and generally liked the same things - drinking and killing, the two corps had very different ideas about the direction of the Alliance. So we split.

SoTF "joined" up with our old friends in BANE alliance, ANTI, QCats and SLAPD and had fun in Amamake. We had a good time forming some great fleets. We camped gates and did the pirate thing. Then trouble started brewing in the north, and the Goons opened this on Pandemic Legion...

...and thus PL abandoned the North. And where did they come back to? Amamake. Suddenly local was full of negative standing toons. From a usual 15-20 in local we had triple figures. They quickly went about setting up PoS's and then jumping their supercaps in. Unfortunatly they were also clearly very bored! We had corp members agreeing a 1v1 with members of PL only to have a TITAN warp on top of them half way through the fight. At one point PL were camping a gate with Titans!

Amamake was "ruined" for us. Outnumbered 5:1 by an enemy that had super capitals logged on and parked all around the system, and would happily drop them on frigates! From feeling invincible 12 months ago we are now feeling rather small and vulnerable. And all it took was Pandemic Legion dropping titans on us to show us this. Oh well I suppose that's nothing to be ashamed about!

So in the last 12 months we have -

Lived in low-sec as a faction war corp

Lived in NPC 0.0 as a corp and war dec'd alliances that lived there.

Lived in Sov Holding 0.0 as part of the NC and built an outpost and taken part in huge battles and done the sov holding thing.

Lived in low sec as part of an Alliance and war-dec'd other alliances

Lived in low sec as a pirate corp.

So this brings up right up to the present. And a new and exciting move for Shadows of the Federation! No, we're not doing hi-sec or wormhole's, althought they are about the only things we've not done in the last year! Not enough PvP with them two!

We're back in Nisuwa and back in the Gallente Militia. As soon as this was decided and announced on the forums there was a spike in activity. On the same day we got nearly all of our assets out of Amamake and neighbouring systems via carriers. If the Caldari have something to fight, this could be fun.

So in summary, we've pretty much had a year out of Faction War. We've experienced new things. We've achieved somethings I never thought we would. We've lost people along the way, but gained one or two as well. But we are back home now. Not as strong as when we left, but a lot more experienced..... don't underestimate us......

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

The men were all stood around the holoprojector, dressed in Gallente Navy uniforms. The room was dark but their faces were illuminated by the glow of the holoprojector.

"It's not looking good is it Sir?" said one "The Caldari have control of too many systems between Villore and Nourv"

He flicked a few buttons on his datapad and the warzone flashed up, red bubbles surrounding the planets to show occupancy.

"What the frack are the Capsuleer militia doing? Why the hell are we in this position!" one of the older men grumbled.

A younger officer turned to him "They are Capsuleers, very few fight for what is right or any form of ideology. They fight for rewards, tell me Admiral, how do we reward the Capsuleers? With meaningless ranks? A few scant rewards from our Navy stores. Is it any wonder the Capsuleer corporations tire and leave looking for something more rewarding. We've neglected them for years, and now we wonder why they won't fight for us?"

The old Admiral nodded his head in agreement.

"I suppose your right" he sighed "What about the corporations that have left in the last year or so, the ones with most confirmed kills? What has happened to them?"

The young officer pulled out his datapad.

"Well looking at the top killers, Wrath of Fenris have disbanded. Bi-Polar Bears the same. Shadows of the Federation are now pirates down in Amamake, The....."

"Can we get the Shadows back?"

"Why would they want to? Especially when Central Command Prime still insists in adjusting standings when assisting a pirate. I just cannot understand CCP. We allow pirates to join the Militia and assist us fighting the Caldari, but if they use remote-repair modules on each other we dock them standings to the Federation for assisting a pirate that is actually fighting for the Federation! It makes no sense."

The old Admiral shook his head "I don't care, find a way to get them back here! There must be a way!"

-o0o-

A Caspuleer strolled into the bar at the State Protectorate station at Nisuwa V. He noticed the barman pondering over his datapad with a look of concern.

"What's up? You look a tad worried"

The barman looked up and saw the customer, he grabbed a glass and started to make him his usual drink.

"This!" and he slid the datapad over to the capsuleer.

The capsuleer skimmed over the datapad. "Erm.... investors.... large, regular sums of ISK.... must keep large stocks of Minmatar Fire Whisky, Gallente Orange Infused Vodka, Amarrian red wine and beer..... Minimum of 5 female dancers on from 22:00 to 04:00 station time every night, minimum of two brunette's........ Maintenance crew for repairs also on standby during those hours. All paid for by the investors. Sounds like someone wants to invest heavily in your bar, so why you looking so concerned, this looks great"

The barman was still looking glum "Yeah, but look at what they want"

The capsuleer scrolled down. "Where is that bit, I cannot see they want anything"

"Yeah, that's right. They want nothing in return"

The capsuleer looked puzzled. "An investor is offering you large sums of cash to keep the bar stocked with certain drinks and to have dancers and maintenance crews on standby. That makes no sence!"

The barman sighed "I'm afraid it does. The message originated from Villore. Gallente high-sec. A Gallente Navy Station. Now that you know that lovely snippet of information...."

The capsuleer went white. He looked again at the list of items.

Amarrian red wine! Their CEO!

Shadows.....

Gallente Vodka, but not any old vodka, orange infused vodka! And brunette dancers. That drunkard Director!

.... of the......

Minmatar Fire Whisky. That creepy Director who kept all the corpses. Thousands of them!

..... Federation!

The capsuleer downed his drink. "Another, NOW!"

The barman just nodded to the viewport. "You sure you want to stick around?"

The capsuleer looked over at the viewport, there was something out there in space. A red pulsating energy field could be seen just off the station. He approached the viewport trying to make out what it was.

"Is that a cyno....."

Suddenly there were several large flashes. The capsuleer jumped back from the viewport in surprise. Artificial wormholes exploded in flashes of light and vanished. In their place were numerous carriers. Thanatos, Chrimera's and Archon's.

"No!" is all the capsuleer could mutter.

The barman sighed. Profits were about the go through the roof, but also was the aggravation that went along with running a bar with them around. He turned to the capsuleer.

"I'd be heading to the hanger if I was you. In a few hours this will be no place for a member of the Caldari Militia"

Monday, September 12, 2011

As well as an obsessive Eve Online addict, I like my scuba diving. And in scuba diving I like diving shipwrecks. Whilst the purposely sunk ones are nice such as the HMS Scylla back in the UK (which I have dived many times), I love the ones with a story behind them. There are three shipwrecks I know about which I think CCP should look into. The story behind them is something that they should consider whether this sort of shenanigans could be brought into Eve. I think it would fit into the Eve universe very nicely!

The issue at hand is that in Eve, basically we pretty much know how a ship will be fit. Nearly all ships in Eve have an A or B fit which the majority of players use. You see a ship, have a quick look at the turrets and most the time you know what that ship is, how it's roughly fit and what it's strengths and weakness are. Wouldn't it be interesting to have a wildcard once in a while.

Before we look into individual "wildcard" ships, there is another shipwreck story that makes me think of Eve. Following capture of the Enigma coding machine by the British Navy (Damn you Hollywood! Damn you!) they set a tarp. A coded message was sent back to Germany from a U-Boat in the area stating that the allies were running supplies up the Bristol Channel with little or no protection. I recall the message included a phase like "....bring as many torpedo's as you can carry....". They even included a map reference. The British intercepted this message and decoded it. Three U-Boats were dispatched and went to the co-ordinates, which, since the message had been sent, had been laid as a deep water submarine mine field. All three U-Boats were sunk. If you have a tri-mix qualification (they are 50m+ deep I recall) you can dive these wrecks off the Devon coast. Meta-"gaming" in real-life warfare?

So onto the Wildcards. Take a ship that is supposed to do one job, and fit it so it does something different.....

In the early days of submarine warfare the various Navy's around the world were experimenting. Just like an real noob, or a drunk person on Eve, they would experiment with fits that most people would laugh at. The British Navy took a bog-standard submarine and promptly mounted a 12in battleship gun on it's deck! The submarine would surface, fire its behemoth cannon, and submerge whilst the enemy on the ship that just took the hit were going "WHAT THE **** WAS THAT!?!?

The M1 was lost when a ship passed over it and knocked the gun which tore a hole in it's mounting and sunk the submarine. Just look at the size of that cannon mounted on the submarine!

Originally fit the same as her sister ship, the M1, she was refitted after the M1's sinking. Only the British Navy could come up with a mad idea like this! They took off the battleship cannon and replaced it with a small water-tight aircraft hanger. Inside was a small folding-wing spy plane. The M2 would surface, open the hanger doors, unfold the wings of the plane, fire this poor little plane via a huge elastic band like something made by Wile E Coyote and then close the doors and submerge. At a pre-arrange time and place the sub would pop up, the spy plane would lane on the water, the sub would grab the plane with a small crane, heave it on board and submerge again.

During exercises between the wars it is believed that whilst trying to break their time record for surfacing-launching-submerging the sub submerged before the hanger doors were fully closed (or opened the doors before she was fully surfaced), flooding the ship and killing all those on board.

I have only heard this story 2nd hand (I think the link above is the same ship), but really loved it. During WW2 the British Navy were offering 6lb deck guns to fishing trawlers following attacks on them in order that they could defend themselves. The Admiralty also offered a reward for each confirmed German U-Boat they got. During a patrol a U-boat spotted a fishing trawler and surfaced next to it telling the crew to abandon ship as they were going to sink it. The Germans got a bit of a shock when the crew quickly pulled the tarp off a deck gun and swung it at the now defenseless U-boat that had pulled up alongside. The story goes the bushy-bearded fishing trawler captain yelled "Fire that there gun at em!". They scored three direct hits from point blank range with the 6lb gun and the Germans retreated rather quickly. The U-boat escaped, although it was badly damaged by the fishermen and was sunk soon after by a British destroyer after the fishing trawler reported it's position. Not sure if all the details are correct, but a great story anyway.

TD;DD

Now if only we could have some surprises like this popping up in Eve Online.

The Badger MK2 that deploys an Assault Frigate or an Interceptor. Some sort of hanger mod that uses up all the cargo space to house this one ship. One pilot "docks" in the Badger and the other flies it. When they get attacked, 1 become 2!

The stealth bomber with large artillery cannons (with a massive penalty to ammo volume so it can only fire once or twice and a huge buff to damage). Suddenly SB'rs become useful against something other than BS and POS'. Ooooooo, a cruiser sat still not moving on a gate. Surprise!

I'm sure there are many great ideas that could spawn from these real life examples. The possibilities are endless! Would mix things up a bit wouldn't it ;)

Thursday, September 8, 2011

In recent months, the relationship between CCP and it's customers has been the subject of some controversy. The player-elected Council of Stellar Management has played a key role in these events, but not for the first time they are finding CCP difficult to deal with. What effect will CCP's recent strategies have on the future of EVE Online and it's player-base? What part can and should the CSM play in shaping that future? How best can EVE Online's continued health and growth be assured?

Well Seismic Stan has opened a can of worms there hasn't he! A few of the graphs floating around this week showing declining PCU numbers are worrying to say the least. A few of the underlying issues as I see them....

CCP Needs Money, but....

They are not a charity, they are a business. They need to make money, they need profit. To do this they need to to do two things. Keep existing customers happy to retain them and attracting new customers. Note the use of the word "customer" as opposed to "players". Many players customers are ranting that WiS is a waste of time and that most people don't want it. That might be the case with the majority of current players customers. However, I recall CCP did some market research a long time ago into why people didn't play Eve. One of the top answers given was that you didn't have a human avatar, just a green pod. This was one of the reasons many people didn't play Eve, and to attract new customers this needed addressing. New customers = good for Eve.

Incarna also had the inclusion of A VANITY ONLY micro-transaction shop (although admittedly CCP failed to look up the word "micro" in the dictionary). This will be (eventually, when we're let out of that pokey room) a good idea in increasing CCP's bank balance.

OK, so they are two good ideas, but they've done a proper Gerald Ratner in deploying it. However don't forget that the underlying idea is sound. More new players and more money for CCP is good for Eve.

They are also looking to grow the company, again this will help Eve. Dust 514, World of Darkness, are all potential projects to grow the company. However, they are doing this whilst seriously p155ing of their existing player customer base. Not a good idea as if the Eve customer base dies, so does CCP's income and development potential. Neglecting existing customers to win new ones has never, ever, worked as a business model! This leads us nicely onto the next subject.

CCP Needs to Think About Existing Customers as Well as Attracting New Ones.

Whilst I agree with what CCP are doing - trying to grow both the Eve player-base and the company, they are going about it all wrong. Eve-O customers are feeling very neglected. They feel that content delivery is shifted from Eve to DUST and WoD. Whether this is true or not, that is the perception. I myself would be interested to know the numbers of "content creation" type devs that are working on Eve-O now compared to say before DUST and WoD. This goes double for the art department which was highlighted as a bottle-neck in the recent CSM minutes. A lot of the talk about the future of Eve Online is about balancing and mechanics. What CONTENT is there to look forward to. After establishments, I see nothing on the horizon other than tweaks under the hood (which to be fair are really needed, but we need something shiny too to look forward too!).

This neglect, whether perceived or real, is losing CCP customers. I know several from my own corp who have had "enough" with Eve and have quit the game (and they never let me haz their stuffz). Whilst this has always happened since Eve day 1, the number in the last 6-months has intensified substantially.

I think this type of problem can be summed up in three words - Star - Wars - Galaxies. Sony Online Entertainment wanted to attract new customers to their game. They made changes that the existing player-base hated, they ignored that player-base and went ahead with the changes......... and the game died.

CCP Needs to Work on Eve Expansions and Continue to Develop and Work With Them Until.... ooooo look! A puppy!

There appears to be a problem where CCP implement something, get so far and then shoot off at a tangent on another project within Eve. Faction War is a prime example. There is still a lot broken with FW, there are so many improvements that could be made, the back story was progressing nicely, Tibus Heth has miners disease and.... Oooo look! A Puppy! Suddenly we're off to T3 ships, then suddenly it's Farmville in space and then onto pointy ships killing everything in sight and whilst that's going on we're let out of our ships into a box room that melts your graphics card. This has left each previous expansion sulking in the corner like the older sibling when a new baby is born. I'll keep on FW as that is not only an area close to my heart, but I think a great example of the "Oooo look a puppy" syndrome that CCP is currently inflicted with.

CCP Need to Realise Encouragement is Better Than Force.

This sounds like a bloody obvious statement - In the sandbox there are so many different groups. CCP needs to think about how the "tweeks" effect all the different groups. For a start stop this obsession with getting 99.99% of players into Null Sec. Make people want to go there, don't force people there. Nerfing hi-sec every five minutes alienates a large number of your players, a VERY large number I would guess without seeing the percentages by security status. The Sanctum nerf again arsed off a large portion of the player-base and in fact encouraged a lot more players to move away from null-sec to hi-sec. Arsing off your player-base is not a good idea!

CCP Need to Realise There is no Such Thing as an Average Eve Player.

In the best sandbox game out there, people make their own fun. You cannot even group people into boxes like carebear/PvP'er as each of these has such a diverse range of "mini-professions". What sounds amazing for one carebear is "meh" to another and "Noooooooooooooo!" to another.

On Twitter recently serveral forthcoming Dev Blogs were builtup to epic proportions by CCP staff posting how great these blogs were going to be and they were "major" and "awesome".

I read them when they finally came out and I couldn't have given a flying XXXXX. What do I care, as a low-sec pirate, about 0.0 or customisable API keys. Who found these blogs major or awesome? What percentage of the player base?

So how can the CSM help? What needs to be done in Eve? Lets run through.....

Money -

CCP are on the right track with getting new players in via Incarna and the VANITY ONLY OPTIONAL ITEMS FOR EVER AND EVER AND EVER NeX store. They cocked up the deployment good and proper, but they are getting there. Once we get establishments and we are socialising with other players then may be I'll spend some AUR. But not before, what's the point in a nice pair of boots right now? How can the CSM help here? They cannot. If they back CCP they will be flamed to death, but CCP making money and attracting new players to the game is critical for the future survival of Eve (providing you don't upset the whole existing play-base). CSM, keep out of this one, you cannot win!

Development -

Once a feature is developed, it needs support. Please kill that f****** puppy to reduce distractions. Things like faction war shouldn't be a "stick it in and forget about it". It needs support and continuing development. The CSM should be badgering CCP to fix what is broken and to continue development of existing features and not to just be concentrating on the next expansion every time.

Bug and "issue" fixing should be given a very high priority. Put down that Amarrian bar and look at the faction hit when remote repping a GCC corp mate when in FW for example!

Involving the Players, but Don't Rely on the Forums. The CSM Evolved....?

The CSM, as a sounding board, is way too small for a game like Eve. Also the voting system makes it geared up for large alliances. There needs to be a larger "sounding board" group that is ACTUALLY LISTENED TO by CCP! Multiple representatives are required from each area of the game so that a holistic approach is taken. Break the CSM into 12 heads of section each covering an area of play-style. Below them are 10 "advisers" who have an interest in that area. Think of it like a Government. You have a Secretary of Defence, Secretary of State etc and each of them are backed up by a team of advisers. Why not try and get as many play-styles within Eve into the CSM?

This needs a lot more thought than I'm giving it but something along the lines of the following:-

Empire Carebear

Empire PvP

Empire Corporation and Alliance

Pirate

Null Carebear

Null PvP

Null Corporation and Alliance

Capital Ships

WH Space

PoS and Stations

Faction War

Trade, Science and Industry

(I use Empire to group high and low sec together).

Now each of those 12, of which one will be the Chair, won that seat in a vote similar to current CSM voting. However, you need to show that you are actively engaged in that area. You want to go for the FW position? Then you should know FW inside out!

The 10 runners up in each position are now the advisory team for the winner! They don't get to go to Iceland on jollies but they are used as a sounding board/focus group to assist the CSM Representative for that area. By having named positions on the CSM you are getting a more diverse range of players. Imagine the suggestions and enhancements that could be given to Team BFF by that group of 132 players who are each passionate about their area of the game!

Communication -

I think we all agree that communication between CCP and the player-base is poor. Lets have more communication and use the CSM more to get the message across. Keep us up-to-date with current thinking. It's OK to say "That thing we said 2 months ago, we're looked at it and it won't work or would break something else so we're not doing it". But at least get feedback from the players, don't go hurtling down one route and find you've really misjudged the feelings of the players.

CCP PLEASE listen to the players. I know 95% act like angry kids and the forums are full of flame, hate and trolling.... but in that mess there are a few real players who are trying to help you create the game we all want to play.

Nobody wants Eve Online to be the next Star Wars Galaxies. Please, please, please CCP, don't do a SOE!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

We heard a rumour it was coming! Logging into Eve when I got home last night confirmed it with a local full of orange tags. Pandemic Legion have moved into our home system of Amamake. I usually get online around 13:00 Eve time and I can expect to see 10-15 in local. Usually quiet in the middle of the day, but yesterday it was 65! 4 blues, 21 neuts (or more likely PL alts) and 40 orange tagged members of PL. We have PL set as negative standing, not because we have any thing against them, just that they tend kill anything in sight, horribly, so always useful to know when you have PL in the same system as you. I love the quote on soverignty wars best (link further down page) of....

Esna Pitojee pretty much sums it up; “..does PL come in any size in between ‘not there’ and ‘omg supers’?”

To be honest, I didn't undock last night!

Now summer is over and things are returning to normal here in the desert, I no long stay up to 3am leading DIAF fleets. I'm now back to normal working hours with the alarm going off at 6:40am and no afternoon snooze. Also quiz night down the local bar has restarted (as the city becomes so quiet over summer with the schools and universities shutting down, most of the entertainment also shuts down) so rather then pew-pew I was drinking (cider ofc) and answering questions with the gang. We came second thanks to a really good round on Entertainment!

Therefore I don't really know what happened on PL's first day in our area. But a quick look around Twitter and blogsphere and it looks like they've been busy.

At www.gamerchick.com it reports that PL have been hot-dropping like it was going out of fashion.

Sovereigntywars reports multiple carriers and supercarriers drop to kill.... a single Redeemer!

Well it looks like things are going to get very interesting for a while. PL have brought one hell of a force to Amamake and there will be lots of oppertunity for PvP.... I just wonder how one-sided it will be when they are deploying Titans to kill Drakes!

Saturday, September 3, 2011

So it's the monthly Frigfry Friday where we naughty pirates of Amamake invite EVERYBODY to come to OUR system in frigates and fight. There are prizes to be won and a dedicated killboard for the event http://event.heretic-nation.com/

I wrote this as I went along from when I logged on until I went to bed at 4:30am local time a bit "worse for wear". If the commentary starts going down hill at any point that's probably where I finished the case of Strongbow and went onto Absolut!

I undock a Hawk. It's early morning for most of the west but it's lunchtime over here in the Middle East. There are a few friendlies at top belt. We get a tackle on a Merlin and there is an XXX in fleet. Bit odd I thought as I was going to leave him to it frig v frig but warp as I assume he's in trouble. No, he put the XXX in fleet to get attention before saying he want to solo that ship. We decide on a different call from now on!

A Thorax has been watching this so we decide to kill him. With just a 'ceptor, an AF and a frigate I swap the AF for a Kitsune.

I take the Kitsune back and swap to a Hawk and get back to top belt. Now I knew that Hawk was ready to go, but as I land at top belt I notice two mods are offline. Apparently this is a common bug in Incarna 1.1 :(

Next up there is a Hawk at top belt. The other two guys I was with are gone so I'm solo. Feeling like a 1v1 so I burn at him. We engage. Obviously same exact fits. I frack it up good and proper by burning out my point and clicking the cap booster too early and some how it stops reloading. Fail! I know I'm going down so select celestrial and start spamming warp. But he gets me and pods me. But there is no pod bug is there in Incarna. Nooooooooooooooo /coughISKsinkcough

So nice new shiny clone and back to a.... erm.... I'll go for a Jaguar this time! Not enough cash to insure it! Log on alt, transfer more cash over to Drackarn, insure and undock. Stare at black screen whilst thinking what an ISK sink PvP is..... continue staring at black screen..... still all very black...... erm......my cursour is there.... I can pass the time wiggling that about..... 30 seconds must be up now. "Entering space" Finally! 7km from station. Good job there was nobody outside other that would have been two deaths from in-game bugs... sorry I mean Eve working as intended o.0

People in local are talking about the resident pirates so I give them a hearty "G'Aaaaaar" in local. After being asked if that was a mating call I re-educate them on Pirate chat-up lines from http://www.talklikeapirate.com/

10 . Avast, me proud beauty! Wanna know why my Roger is so Jolly?
9. Have ya ever met a man with a real yardarm?
8. Come on up and see me urchins.
7. Yes, that is a hornpipe in my pocket and I am happy to see you.
6. I'd love to drop anchor in your lagoon.
5. Pardon me, but would ya mind if I fired me cannon through your porthole?
4. How'd you like to scrape the barnacles off of me rudder?
3. Ya know, darlin’, I’m 97 percent chum free.
2. Well blow me down?
1. Prepare to be boarded.

I catch a Rifter in top belt. He's got an epic tank. Seriously his armour must be over 9000! Then I get the security status penalty message for killing him and he's still in armour on my screen. Try to warp, not working, "Amamake, we have a problem. I'm sat at 0 in the top belt and hideously de-sync'd". I try to warp again, but I'm getting messages about guns deactivating from the fight that finished a while ago. Ctrl-Q! Log back in and I'm still in my ship! Phew

There are three Rifters that turn up and flying in a close pack. They are doing a good job flying together. So we engage. Unfortunately one of our members arrives in a Stabber Fleet Issue and engages as we all shout NOOOOOOOOOO. I've been posting this for a whole week all on the forum! All three go down.

The offender is told to reimburse the pilots and to read the ****ing forums. Thrasher warps in at 0 to top belt. Seriously guys, there are fleets here. Ask for a 1v1 or bring a fleet. Don't roll into belt 1 without looking! Use a pounce!

There's more, many more, but not going to keep posting them. Bored/drunk now!

Then all hell breaks loose! The un-piloted carrier that was being used to refit whilst GCC and also to store loot at a POS is bored by a neut. Who is that? That one of ours? How's he inside the forcefield. Did he just bored the carrier? Guys the carrier is warping off!

Queue unholy SHIT STORM!

10 minutes later a member of the same corp admits he was proving a point about lapse security!

The Minmitar Militia bring a cruiser and battlecruiser fleet. Nice lads, we expect that from the Amarr but you guys?

A Tempest Fleet Issue lands in the Amarr blob. I quickly swap to a Manticore, warp to them, tag the shiny and GTFO. MUHAHAHAHAHAHA

Loki, Proteus and triple Guardian with BS and BC land in top belt. Such a great way to join in Frigfry Fryday.

They warp off when a 60-man Eve University BS gang land next door in Dal!

FOR SMEGS SAKE IT'S FRIG FRY FRIDAY!

Anyway, a bit more killing until Minmitar ask for help as one of their POS's is under attack from the Amarr. Well that was a waste of an hour. Amarr have dreads and triage carrier. Midnight anf me an BlueJacket are tied. T1 frigate fight but I have no T1 frigate. So I watch the royal rumble from a distance almost nodding off.

Great day and thanks to Jude Lloyd/Heritic Army/BANE for organising it.

9.5 hours later and I'm polishing this post off with a massive hangover! Ouch. Congrats to Bluejacket CT of Percussive Diplomacy as top killer with 32 kills! http://event.heretic-nation.com/

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